Moise Kean’s header and the first Federico Bernardeschi goal in Serie A since July 2020 allowed Juventus to beat Cagliari 2-0, but there were a couple of scares too.
The Bianconeri missed Paulo Dybala, Federico Chiesa, Aaron Ramsey, Danilo and Giorgio Chiellini, but Arthur was confirmed with Moise Kean and Alvaro Morata upfront. The Sardinians were in deep crisis after back-to-back 4-0 defeats and one win all season in Serie A. Nahitan Nandez, Marko Rog, Kevin Strootman and Sebastian Walukiewicz were injured, with Razvan Marin suspended. Diego Godin and Martin Caceres were frozen out.
Kean thought he’d scored in the opening 12 minutes, but his header on a Juan Cuadrado cross thumped the far post.
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The only times Cagliari created any kind of danger was from Juve errors, such as a Leonardo Bonucci back-pass.
The breakthrough finally came when Federico Bernardeschi went on a smart run towards the right, cut back inside and crossed with his left foot for the head of Kean.
Alex Sandro nodded a corner wide of the near post, but Cagliari should’ve equalised when Raoul Bellanova flashed a ball across the six-yard box and Dalbert couldn’t steer it on target, only making slight contact.
They threatened again, Wojciech Szczesny needing a fantastic fingertip save to push Joao Pedro’s header over the bar.
Juve finally secured the points with a very rare goal from Bernardeschi. He was sent on the counter by Dejan Kulusevski and smashed the angled drive across Cragno into the far bottom corner with his left foot. It ended a 43-game Serie A goal drought, his first since facing Sampdoria in July 2020 and he received a standing ovation from the crowd in Turin.
Juventus 2-0 Cagliari
Kean 40 (J), Bernardeschi 83 (J)